§ 5020.Satisfaction-piece.

Getting paid on a judgment doesn't end the paperwork; it starts an obligation to clear the record. CPLR 5020 requires anyone entitled to enforce a judgment who receives full or partial satisfaction to execute and file a satisfaction-piece, or partial satisfaction-piece, acknowledged the way a deed is acknowledged for recording, stating the book and page where the judgment is docketed. Within ten days of filing, a copy has to be mailed to the judgment debtor, so the debtor has proof the debt has been cleared from the public record.

Subdivision (b) lets an attorney of record, or the attorney named on the judgment's docket, execute the satisfaction-piece on the creditor's behalf, within ten years after the judgment's entry. That authority stands even if it was revoked before being exercised, unless the person dealing with the judgment, whether making a payment or purchasing property bound by it, had actual notice of the revocation beforehand. That protects third parties who reasonably relied on an attorney's apparent authority.

The statute has teeth for creditors who sit on a satisfied judgment instead of clearing the docket. Once a judgment for less than five thousand dollars is fully satisfied, a creditor who fails to file the satisfaction-piece within twenty days faces a hundred-dollar penalty recoverable by the debtor. For judgments of five thousand dollars or more, that penalty rises to five hundred dollars. Large cities are treated differently: a city with a population over one million people isn't exposed to the penalty unless it fails to file after the debtor serves a written demand by certified mail. Subdivision (d) closes a gap for judgments docketed by transcript in multiple counties, requiring the person satisfying the judgment to also file a certificate with the clerks of every other county where the judgment was docketed.